


the five lies Farkle Minkus told Riley Matthews and the one truth he finally got around to

by awesomenessembodied



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, F/M, More like future fic, Not AU exactly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 16:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7061254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awesomenessembodied/pseuds/awesomenessembodied
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5+1. Riley and Farkle rent an apartment off-campus and it means Farkle has to be less than honest about his feelings, namely his overwhelming, undying, increasingly obvious and decidedly more-than-platonic feelings about Riley Matthews.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "We're practically siblings anyways."

**Author's Note:**

> quick note: Smackle doesn’t go to NYU with them because I honestly couldn’t figure an organic reason why she would go anywhere less than an Ivy. It was hard enough to justify Farkle going there and that was mainly for shippy purposes, let’s be real. Anyways, I adore Smackle, but that combined with the risk of going off on a tangent to explain how/why she and Farkle broke up in the middle of my riarkle fic was too much. Sorry dear :( This is also the first fanfiction I've written since 2014 (back in my ff.net days, oh boy) and is mainly the product of writer's block in my original work, along with a major OTP spiral in the past week that anyonewithaheartbeat can attest to.

The truth was important to Farkle. He was a scientist, and scientists were objective purveyors of the truth as we know it. He had always considered himself above fudging details to save face or flatter someone else’s ego; which was why it was so strange that Farkle found himself lying rather frequently to the last person in the world he wanted to deceive: Riley Matthews. The truth was important, but maybe somethings were more so, because while Riley may have been the last person he wanted to deceive, she would always be the first person he wanted to protect.  


i. “We’re practically siblings anyways.”  


The first lie took place outside Riley’s residence hall one October night at NYU during their sophomore year. Like every Friday night, the old gang had squeezed into Lucas and Zay’s dorm room to play cheesy board games. They sat on the narrow beds, the dressers, the floorspace and they laughed louder than the boys’ neighbors liked. Game night ran later than expected (which was to be expected) and Farkle offered to walk the girls out. After all, Riley was on the way (the opposite direction) and he was too awake (totally dead) anyways.  


Maya had split from them to head towards the subway station- “I’ll be fine, Farkle, you just take care of Miss Sunshine Matthews. If she doesn’t make it back to her dorm, the world would have one less unicorn and we need the ones we’ve got.” She gave a cheeky grin and Riley watched as Maya sauntered past each of the streetlights until she disappeared down the steps of the metro station.  


Riley and Farkle fell into a comfortable silence as they walked to her dorm, both setting a brisk pace. The temperature had dropped in the hours passed at game night and the autumn air bit through their coats, better suited to evening than the approaching midnight. Yet Riley halted as they reached her building and Farkle backpedaled, retracing his steps once he realized Riley was no longer beside him. Instead of swiping her ID at the door, she plunked down onto the bench outside her hall. She began to pick at the wearing coat of black paint and let out a small of huff of air that crystalized into a cloud under the orangey streetlights.  


“Still having trouble with your roommate, huh?” Farkle had heard one too many tales about the other girl’s late night habits and understood why Riley might be hesitant to go in.  


“Unfortunately,” Riley shrugged, “With Maya commuting, the roommate situation has always been less than perfect. I just wish I could room with someone I’m comfortable with. The shine of ‘random roommate’ and ‘college dorm adventure’ wore off about a month into my first semester freshman year.” She quickly attempted to pull her pout into its usual smile, turning her attention to Farkle. “But what about you? Last I heard your situation wasn’t exactly peachy either…”  


Farkle snorted at little at her word choice but responded with a shrug of his own. He sat down on the bench beside her and began to tap his fingers along the same rhythm as her scuffed ballerina flats. “It’s alright. Makes me question the validity of athletic scholarships.” He expected at least a pity smile out of that one, but he instead saw Riley’s brows furrow farther as she chewed at her lip.  


“You know we have to submit our request to renew housing for the spring semester in two weeks,” Farkle nodded and Riley took it as a cue to barrel ahead. “What if we don’t?”  


“What do you mean?”  


Her real smile was back now, the one bright enough to warm up anyone’s insides. Or maybe just Farkle's. She smacked his arm out of excitement, “I mean,” She placed careful emphasis on the words, “What if we rent an apartment off campus? Fees for housing on campus are outrageous and we’ve always gotten along well and I mean who wants to live on campus after freshman year anyways and this would just be great and,” As Riley gained momentum, she lost some of her clarity and her speech picked up speed to the point of almost unintelligible.  


Farkle placed a hand on her shoulder to slow her down. “Logistics. How would your parents feel about you living with some guy in an apartment?”  
Riley laughed at little too quickly at that for his taste. “You’re not ‘some guy’. You’re Farkle. They’ll probably love it.”  
He shifted against the chilly back of the bench and jumped to match her easy demeanor. “I mean… yeah, we’re practically siblings anyways.” He tacked on a laugh for good measure.  


“Exactly.” The pause that followed only lasted a beat before Riley broke it, bouncing out of her seat to give him a light peck on the cheek. “See you tomorrow, roomie.”


	2. “Delicious.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got this all planned out and I was originally going to post this as a long oneshot, but guess who's a sucker for validation? Me. So it's been broken up into installments that should be posted over the course of the next few days.

ii. "Delicious."

The second lie was the most necessary, and came two weeks after they moved in. They had just begun to settle into their schedules that now included one another- Riley taking 8am classes and generally being a “morning glory” (according to her) or “totally insane” (according to Farkle), while he preferred to sleep in on Saturdays until the light became unbearable, despite his blinds' best attempts.

On the second Saturday in the flat, however, the insistent beep of the smoke alarm startled Farkle awake at the ungodly hour otherwise known as 9am. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stumbled into the common area, glancing around for any signs of fire. It soon became apparent that no imminent danger existed, only Riley flapping an oven mitt in front of the smoke alarm. Riley paused her frantic waving and spun around at the sound of his approaching footsteps.

“Hi! Good morning! How are you doing? Didn’t mean to wake you.” She grinned, but took a small step to shield a blackened pan from view. “No fire. You can go back to sleep if you want.”

“Nah, I’m awake now,” Farkle gestured towards the source of the smoke, “What’s all this?”

“Oh…” Riley turned back towards the baking sheet and began to scrape at the mess with her metal spatula. “I wanted to make cookies.”

“At eight in the morning? Are you going somewhere?”

“…no.” Farkle chuckled and approached the oven, which was now clearing of smoke. “Do you think they’re salvageable?”

He looked down at the pan, which contained some kind of melty chocolate disaster. “Well, maybe. What happened to these?”

Riley avoided eye contact and chose instead to tug open the drawer to the left of the stove and pull out a table knife. “Well I was reading this book, you see,” She remained focused on the task in front of her, selecting one of the cookies and marching over to the sink so she could scrape off the burnt edges. “And it was really good. I was halfway through the next chapter before I realized I hadn’t set the timer on the stove.” She sighed and turned to Farkle to offer what was left of the cookie. He tried to hold the pieces together as he accepted it. Riley gazed at him, expectant.

He tossed the whole thing into his mouth before it could crumble in his hands and cringed a little as the smoky taste settled in his mouth. To answer her earlier question, no. They were decidedly unsalvageable; but Riley’s face was still all scrunched up and hopeful and he just couldn’t bring himself to say so. “Mmm. Delicious,” Farkle managed as he continued to chew on the cookie.

“Really?” The crinkle between her eyebrows smoothed out as Farkle finally swallowed his bite.

He cleared the scratchiness from his throat. “Absolutely. They’re very…” He searched for a noncommittal phrase, “Crispy.”

“Oh, good.” With renewed effort and spatula in hand, she began to scour the other cookies from the pan. “Maybe I should bring them to the campus PETA meeting after all.”

Farkle was capable of many things, but the level of cruelty involved in subjecting others to those cookies was not one of them. “Oh, you know, they’re just so good that I could eat the whole pan myself.”

And he did.


	3. "I'm fine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this chapter is the original plot bunny that was bouncing around in my head that spun into this whole mess. It is the number one reason I love roommate AUs and is predictably fluffy and shippy. Also I have no idea if my characterization is alright? I love these characters in show but I'm not sure how to really get their voices down.

iii. “I’m fine.”

The third lie was the one Farkle wanted to believe the most and it happened late at night.

The apartment was old and his door never shut quite right; it hung a little crooked on the frame and he had to settle for fractionally ajar instead of closed. Not that he was terribly worried about privacy- Riley always knocked. This was no exception, and he glanced up from the textbook on his desk at the sound of light tapping at his door in time to see her head, tilted to one side so her hair hung down, peeking around the frame. “Farkle? Oh, you’re studying. Never mind then.” She began to ease the door shut, but he snapped the heavy book closed and swiveled around to face her.

“I wasn’t getting much done anyways. What’s up?”

She leaned against his desk and held up a DVD case for him to see. “Movie night? I found my copy of _The Princess Bride_ in one of the boxes in the bottom of my closet."

“Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles.... who wants to study?”

She laughed and shook her head. “I still can’t believe how much of this movie you can quote. It’s good but…”

“Not that good?” Farkle shrugged and moved to straighten up his desk, returning the pens and highlighters to their homes. “I’ll be right there.” Riley nodded as she meandered back out into the common area.

Their couch was a secondhand, overstuffed two-seater. An older cousin had offered it after buying a new one and they were no position to say no, so there it sat, discolored indentations on either end, looking bluer than ever in the TV light as Farkle walked into the common area. Riley waved from the kitchen area where she stood barefoot in front of the microwave. She had already popped the DVD in and the theme music played on the menu screen, so Farkle settled into one side of the couch and leaned up against the right arm. Riley padded over from the kitchen, bowl in hand. “Popcorn?”

“Of course.”

The night went from there and _The Princess Bride_ somehow became _Star Wars: Episode IV_ and, well, who doesn’t watch the whole original trilogy at once? Somewhere around the destruction of the first Death Star, Riley starts yawning and she got off the couch to stretch while Farkle changed the discs. “I should probably brush my teeth now, while I still have the willpower.” He nodded and she disappeared into the back hallway.

When she comes back out, she’d changed into her, quote on quote, “jammies” and Farkle tried to stay focused on methodically pressing the correct buttons on the remote instead of the way her t-shirt brushed the hem of her cupcake print shorts. She leaned over to pull a blanket from behind the couch and he’s so focused on reading the opening credits that he doesn’t actually understand a word of them.

Riley sits back down on the couch and tucks herself into the quilt before offering him half. Around Han’s revival in Episode VI, she’s really beginning to crash and her eyelids are drooping. She snuggles further into the folds of the blanket and scoots closer to him until she eventually rests her head on his shoulder with another yawn. Farkle freezes at the contact, even though it shouldn’t be unusual for childhood friends. Riley noticed and adjusts her head to look up at him- “You okay?”

He forces himself to relax and nods, trying not notice how her hair tickles against his neck. “I’m fine.”


End file.
